156 FOR THE FLAG

seen some years ago were only artificial. . . . The noises
that terrified the fisher folk were not caused by the warring
of subterranean powers.... The various phenomena
were fictitious. ... They became manifest at the will of
the master of the islet, the man who wanted to drive away
the inhabitants from its coast ... and Count d’Artigas
succeeded. . .. He remains the sole master of Backcup.
... By merely burning gunpowder and by sending the
smoke of the seaweeds brought to him by the currents
through his sham crater, he has established a belief in the
existence of a volcano that has suddenly become active
without warning, and in the imminence of an eruption
that can never take place!”

This is what must have happened, and, indeed, ever
since the departure of the Bermuda fishermen Backcup
has constantly displayed thick wreaths of smoke at its
summit.

Meanwhile the interior light was increasing; daylight
was penetrating through the sham crater as the sun
mounted the horizon. I can therefore calculate the
dimensions of the cavern with tolerable exactness. Here
are my figures :

The islet of Backcup, which is almost circular in
shape, measures twelve hundred yards in circumference
and presents an internal area of about fifty thousand
square yards. At their base the walls vary in thickness
from thirty to a hundred yards.

It follows that, minus the thickness of the walls, the
excavation occupies the whole mass of Backcup which